Q: Which major is the best one to pursue in college?
A: It depends on what you want. Do you want to make a lot of money? Do you want to do something you love? Do you want to be a business owner? Do you want to always be employed? Do you want to be a medical doctor or dentist? Do you want to be a senior scientist or senior engineer? Do you want to be a professor? It all depends, but I can give you a few rules of thumb. If you want to be a medical doctor, the major that has the highest chance of admission into medical school is physics. Physics is also a great major if you love science and want to go to grad school. Physics majors can take their degrees and use them to enter into any technical graduate program or professional school. Everyone thinks physics is hard, so majors get a lot of respect. If you love science and want to be a PhD researcher, but you’re not sure in which field, physics is a great place to start. The same is also true for chemistry majors. In my experience, biology is usually chosen by students wanting to go to med school, but if you look at the statistics, physics majors have the best shot. What if you want to get a job easily right out of undergrad? If you want to get a job right out of college, consider science or engineering. Only 5% of all bachelors degrees are in the engineering versus 22% in business. That amounts to 60,000 new engineers each year versus 290,000 new business graduates. Corporations have been complaining that there are not enough engineers being educated in the United States, so which population do you think is in higher demand? New engineers with decent GPAs can demand high starting salaries. So, if you love science and engineering, spending four years sweating through it can really payoff when you are looking for a job. The top five highest paying college majors are all engineering degrees paying starting salaries over $50,000 a year according to a July 12, 2007 article in Money magazine.
A: It depends on what you want. Do you want to make a lot of money? Do you want to do something you love? Do you want to be a business owner? Do you want to always be employed? Do you want to be a medical doctor or dentist? Do you want to be a senior scientist or senior engineer? Do you want to be a professor? It all depends, but I can give you a few rules of thumb. If you want to be a medical doctor, the major that has the highest chance of admission into medical school is physics. Physics is also a great major if you love science and want to go to grad school. Physics majors can take their degrees and use them to enter into any technical graduate program or professional school. Everyone thinks physics is hard, so majors get a lot of respect. If you love science and want to be a PhD researcher, but you’re not sure in which field, physics is a great place to start. The same is also true for chemistry majors. In my experience, biology is usually chosen by students wanting to go to med school, but if you look at the statistics, physics majors have the best shot. What if you want to get a job easily right out of undergrad? If you want to get a job right out of college, consider science or engineering. Only 5% of all bachelors degrees are in the engineering versus 22% in business. That amounts to 60,000 new engineers each year versus 290,000 new business graduates. Corporations have been complaining that there are not enough engineers being educated in the United States, so which population do you think is in higher demand? New engineers with decent GPAs can demand high starting salaries. So, if you love science and engineering, spending four years sweating through it can really payoff when you are looking for a job. The top five highest paying college majors are all engineering degrees paying starting salaries over $50,000 a year according to a July 12, 2007 article in Money magazine.
